Black Acacia...First time milling for me. #2: Saturday....The first day of milling

I thought today was going to be the first and the only day for milling the Acacia Tree…However that’s not the way it worked out. Getting the right saw…the right bar…the right chain took a lot longer than I expected. However while he was gone I took a load of wood to my house at which point I realized what I was in for. I couldn’t lift them! I had to get my little 14” chain saw from my truck and cut them into movable chunks…this wood is really really heavy. Of course the slippery coat of Anchor Seal didn’t help either.

Side barMy encyclopedia of wood states Acacia Melanoxylon weighs 41lb/cubic foot (Seasoned). Ebony is 61lb/cubic foot; cherry is 36lb/cubic foot; White oak is 47lb/cubic foot. All weights are seasoned. The slab included in this photo weighed about 400lbs. This only matters because the tree is at the back of the property DOWN HILL from the house and about 80 yards from the street…enough whining…after all…I did only pay $300.

Anyways back to the story. We only got the log cut so we could mount the Alaskan Mill. It took nearly an hour to cut the next slab and we were halted by a nail wich apparently got driven into the tree 30 or 40 years ago. It was 7:00 so we decided to give the neighbors a break and go home.

Below are the photos of todays progress. Buddy the tennis ball freak is included to give an idea of how big the slab is. It measures about 22 inches wide about 8 feet long and 5 inches thick…did I already say it weighs about 400lbs?...NO? Well…it weighs about 400lbs…

I hope you enjoy this blog. I can’t seem to get the photos to show up the way I want…just click on them to see the entire photo I guess.

Yeah…lots of work ahead. This first slab was 5” however we are going to cut them 16/4 in the batch. I am cutting them thicker to save time for the guy cutting them. Not sure what I’m going to build but tables of all sorts come to mind. I’ve thought about an entry or sofa table with cherry or walnut legs and frame with a top and drawer fronts made out of this material.

As for other thicknesses I’ll take that up later but not with the chain saw mill. You loose a lot of wood with that thing.

New user here – I’ve just finished milling a 13’ section of black acacia into 3/4” boards for flooring a ways south of Oakland. Wonderful stuff, but hard on tools. It’s 2 years down and has been at 1” for 18 months of that, so it’s pretty dry. If you cut it on the quarter, you’ll get ray-flake very much like cherry – it’s absolutely iridescent, and a light oil finish brings out all the depth.

I poached some of it to build a small bedfoot chest, along with some scrap walnut from a guy who was milling on Sunol Grade in South Fremont CA.

It also turns beautifully and polishes to a high luster. Be careful, though, when cutting it on a tablesaw – it has a lot of stress in the wood and tends to want to close up the cut. Make certain to have a splitter on the saw, or else you’ll burn wood and blade quite a bit.